Wednesday, January 31 2007

I had two blog posts on my mind.

1) Time to get fully organised and start looking for a job. After a meeting with our immigration lawyer, it turns out that I have the better criteria long-term to get the right visa, which can open up for a golden green card for us both. MH on the other hand has the better criteria for having the right visa for the current situation.

2) New arrests in the UK of terrorist suspects. My first thought was selfish, that I was glad to be here in US as it feels less likely to be in a terrorist attack (earth quake is a different matter but at least that is a normal phenomenon). This time the target was a Muslim British soldier(s) to behead him/them. If this had been successful, the public outcry would have been massive. My thinking is that this was what the terrorists were after. The British public is proud and respect its armed forces and regard it to be the best in the world.

The British has in general done well with distinguish between Muslim terrorists and Muslim community and there has not been any riots etc. I think this is what the terrorist arrested today was trying to destroy that. They want more terror and hate in our society between the Muslims and the rest of the society.

But this doesn’t help (pic from BBC story) cos this women is being very offensive

but I guess I should give her the benefit of a doubt that she is doing this against the photographers and not to the British public …?????

We can never ever underestimate these terrorists because they are not stupid. They know what to target and it is where we least expect them to.

And now to something completely different and unimportant stuff … tomorrow’s dinner. Here is one pic and the rest is over at Flickr. BTW, Flickr sucks … the pics are in the wrong order and stupid Flickr can’t even make a feature possible to arrange the pics on the main page in the order I would like to.

Saturday, January 27 2007

Yesterday, finally!!! The boxes are in the building. I packed thinking it would arrived 4-6 weeks later and not 3 months, 8 days later. It has been basic living until now and now it is semi-basic living.

This is what I missed the most: My dear King size duvet. I had such good night sleep last night. The washing & dryer machines are bigger here in the US and I, with some force, pushed the duvet in and got it cleaned.

With some clever packing like this, only one plate and a bowl got broken. Computer, decks & LCD screen were just fine.

If you want to snoop some more of my unimportant stuff, I have made it available on my Flickr.

Thursday, January 25 2007

I have so far, since 2001, always got real good customer service from Amex. Actually, it is outstanding customer service that I have not experience with another company.

Like today, I spoke to the UK branch of Amex about my re-issued card that a courier company (plus points for not using the long-fingered Royal Mail!) tried to delivered to my UK address.

The solution: I can pick up the card here in San Francisco early next week. Now that IS real good service.

Amex was also helpful with setting up a US$ account and gave us a reasonable line of credit. They looked at my credit history in the UK and about 15 minutes later it was all sorted.

A few years back when I went to Shanghai, China, and needed the right currency. The Amex guy in FX office ran out of Yuan (oh boy he so apologetic since it was such unusual currency) the day that I dropped in and he made sure that I could pick the amount I needed 9am the morning after.

The thing is that I am not loaded or earning a ton of money. I am just a normal customer and have an Amex Blue card – no annual charge. Who know what the Amex Black card (invites only)service must be like 😉

Monday, January 22 2007

People are very laid back here in San Francisco compared to Londoners. My guess is that goes for most of the people in California.

There is one exception and that sunk in while driving … if you place a Californian in a car and their super aggressive alter ego takes over. Maybe it is some sort of cheap therapy for them? Who the fuck know?

All I know is that I had to stand on the break pedal on the 101 highway (freeway, motorway) and slow down from 75 to 15 in a very short time. And then an anxious glance in the mirror to see if the car behind me would stop before licking the babyblue colour of my rental (UK: hire) car. Close but didn’t touch. After that everyone decided it was better to be in any other lane then current one. Some dickhead driver must be in front.

If something happens, I’d like an explanation. It was a start-stop driving for the next couple of miles with no sign of a traffic accident or similar. So why do I have to break so hard on a highway? Gimme a few hours of thinking and more driving, the penny (cent??) dropped.

You regular CA highway driver are probably snorting at me and calling me a rookie (if being polite).

It must have been drivers that cut into a lane real late & sharp which forces the cars behind to break hard with the knock-on effect. Yes? The traffic is madly aggressive in this laid back part of the world.

Saturday, January 20 2007

Friday, January 19 2007

When it comes to purchasing of all the normal boring stuff like tooth paste, loo rolls, washing up liquid etc – I am trying to spend as little as possible or get as much as I can for my money.

The tooth paste I use is Colgate Total & Whitening – not enough whitening since this is the land of white teeth – so at Walmart, there was this offer of Buy 1 Get 1 Free. Both boxes were in a plastic wrap and of equal size.

I open up the ‘free’ box first and to my surprise and cursing of these scheming marketing people, I get this:

And with the actual tube is out of the packaging it looks like this: The thing that really annoys me is that I got fooled by marketing people and that ticks me off. It is a constant battle between consumer and them, isn’t it?